


Let me follow

by Vuetyris



Series: LuXev [3]
Category: Warframe
Genre: Battle Couple, Body Horror, Body-possession vs partner, Comforting, Contract work, Depersonalization, Forgiveness, M/M, Possession, Regret, Resouce scavenging, Risky Behavior, Self-Mutilation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-11 16:57:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19931404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vuetyris/pseuds/Vuetyris
Summary: Xev has a problem; a cracked transference bolt, a history of being the primary sentinel guard of a void tower - he needs to be careful where he comes in contact with void energy. There's a storm - it was going to be simple to outpace it, meet up to recover a fusion moa to resell and get out of there...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> -+- Kudos, sharing, and comments are encouraged! -+-

Lightweight drone engines fall silent as it descends beneath a rocky overhang, fading to hover off to the side of a light coated chroma as he stands guard. Jostling a half-stubborn karak against his feathered thigh, Lucifer watches over the crouched form of his prime partner leaning into the carapace of a fusion moa. Central core still intact; Xev fidgets with the corpus proxy’s interconnective wiring with the vague hope the orokin components are salvageable; a part of him ignoring the chroma’s complaints.

“They’re brand new, if you want to, feel free to lug it all the way back to the ship, Luci.” He calls over, glancing up to see his partner depositing another slab of circuits into the drone’s resource receptacle.

“Couldn’t we just tie it up to the drones and air lift it,” the chroma barks back – as irritation bristles across his creamy turquoise feathers the last of sickly gore and oil reabsorbs beneath his coat. Their contract assignment well complete they still linger to pick up the scraps – a meager ‘clean out’ of a rivaled facility all that’s left is proxies. Circuits, polymers, whatever they may be able to salvage; stopped in their tracks by the excalibur’s preoccupation with reselling stolen technology. A hobby and a hustle; a side job among the drought of combat missions. As Lucifer turns his chilled palm slaps the receptacle closed, the chroma’s refurbished drone departing back to their shared ship.

Down below Xev hisses, quickly pulling his hand from the moa’s shell and shaking it out. An electrical surge, he mumbles, reaching back into the proxy’s gut. “It’s too heavy, what’d you think I’m elbow deep in it, Lucifer?” The prime half snarls, aggression flickering over his partial features as he stares into the internal config. “Almost… fuckin,” he trails, golden claws daunting once more into the wiring bay, still trying to tease the small connectors that still hold the core in the cradle.

Heaving himself from one foot to another, there’s a brevis as the chroma’s feathers remained ruffled, keeping himself at a distance as he gauges the prime’s temperament from a distance. Despite the whorls of blown snow that dances through the canyon crevice he can still make out the wisp of fumes exhausting from Xev’s gasping vents. Overheating; Lucifer figures, the fallout of the endured stress – he kicks a corpse out of the way as he wanders down the metal lined pathway.

“How’s the heat doing you,” he kneels beside the fidgeting prime – courteous to even hold the moa in place as Xev pulls.

“Could be worse,” Xev snarls, brushing the snow from his hindquarters as he moves to stand – of course, Lucifer assists. “Who knows,” gingerly he tests the weight of the core – wires still hanging free over his palm, “this might be enough to get you a corinth.”

Lucifer huffs, checking over on his commlink connected to their scrapped together vessel and reproduced common grade cephalon – only alert enough to handle the mundane requests. A minor ping on any atmospheric anomalies as he waits for the confirmation his drone is done with its hefty deposit from earlier. “Storm seems to be rolling in just east of us,” the chorma’s voice rumbled, discouraged by the broadcast reading through his systems as he looks to Xev.

“I’m sure we can manage with a blizzard,” Xev almost chuckles, letting a deep breath exhale, loading the heavy core into his own resource drone. “I could go for a full system cool down about now.”

Having averted his attention to his returning drone Lucifer pauses, tilting his head over as words hung stuck on his tongue. A chance of a snide remark suffocated by the alert surging through his optical receptors. “It’s void fissures, sunshine.” His tone remains neutral, with the barest rumble of worry – about as much as the brutish chroma can manage in his low tone.

Xev snaps the receptacle closed, letting his resource drone return to their ship.

Remaining at his side, Lucifer looks down to him, his feathers ruffled along the back of his neck. “Think we should get going. Don’t want to risk it.”

The prime sighs, kneeling himself back down to the moa he’s already carved into. “Let me see your drone, there’s some other components to this that looks still intact, orokin organs.” Taking very little time he pulls free the glean of cream and gold – one of the key components to the fusion moa, wiring through the bio-organs melded with circuitry. There’s no mess that follows as he ropes it around up to the chroma’s awaiting claws, brushing his hands into the snow to wipe away the clear lubricant he had to deal with. “There’s another moa I wanted to try and salvage, short walk away.”

Lucifer growls, feeding the orokin-design bio-organics into the resource receptacle, “wouldn’t that take too long?”

Xev pauses, forcing himself up to stand with a sigh. “Not if you get the ship and meet me there.”

When he turns, Lucifer’s sightless maw stares at him, the bristling of fur enough to convey the simmering energy beneath them. “You want to split up? Now with void fissures in the vicinity…?”

“Look, I know where the moa is, once my drone gets back you can follow it in the ship to meet me there. It would take far much longer for both of us to go to it and lug it back.”

Lucifer’s look remains intent, with the slightest frown at the edge where his skin replaces the boney plate teeth. And Xev’s remain just as firm, softened by heat exhaustion and drained by fatigue. Who is he to say it would be quicker to take much longer, risk Xev further internal collapse by the pressure of void energy and the spawns that break through the fissures; the chroma buckles, pulling up his elemental ward as he pulls Xev into a hug.

The stark contrast of middling heat internals and the pull of feathers make the prime sigh, burrowing his face into the fuzzy dark chest, hands balling around the slim waist as he returns the gesture. Only temporary, he exhales, a temporary reprieve of the fringe-case that his internal combustion. “I’ll stay in touch over the radio, alright?”

“You better,” the chroma chuffs, claws pulling the slightly smaller warframe against his gut, wanting to just leave the void fissures in their wake… but they need the money. “Stay safe, alright?”

Wrapping an arm around the chroma’s feathered bicep Xev leans into it, pressing his fractured crescent against the feathers. “I will,” and he pulls away from Lucifer. “it’s just around near that clearing two kliks back, I’ll ring you once I reach there until you touch down.”

“Okay,” Lucifer simmers, pulling himself away as he watches Xev leave.

Wishing he could just follow.

Instead he turns, heading back towards where their ship rests behind the back lot of the compound, out of the way of the ever-present Venusian snowbanks. Despite his size, his rather large bulk of a towering 2.5 meters, Lucifer quickly makes his way to Xev’s awaiting ship, heading up the ramp and stowing away his resource drone into its dedicated compartment. Worry grips him as he fumbles to pull in the landing gear – their cephalon can only do so much without manual overrides. “Xev, how far out are you,” he checks in over his comms, swatting at the makeshift display tethered to their signals – or rather just Xev’s resource drone.

“I’m a few rooms down from it,” the prime’s voice pants, the resound of claws on metal digging through the chroma’s concentration as he lifts their post-corpus ship from the snow. “Where are you?”

“Damn thing took a moment,” the chroma growls, “in the air, may take a minute or two to get to you.”

Silence. Lucifer shuffles uncomfortably.

“Sunshine?”

“Yeah, sorry,” the prime sighs, “heats getting to me, once we’re in orbit you’re more than welcome to bundle me up in your fluff,” Xev chides.

There’s a chuckle, Lucifer watching the signal on the display screen. Not much longer – he can lug a moa that size into the bay no problem. It’s more of a matter where they going to stow the thing until they can offload it. A glance back to the large cargo hold, pausing to think, looking back to the ETA readout: two minutes.

Shouldering himself down into the seat there’s a sigh as he settles. He looks back to the display screen.

The resource drone’s signal is gone. The ETA reads one minute.

There’s a moment before he brings up his commlink once more, concern barreling in his gut. “Xev, you see me?”

Nothing.

Unable to fight off the concern Lucifer huffs, feathers ruffling against the seat backing as he waits for the ship to finally settle down on the snow. Just as the landing gear sighs the ship to settle, he’s already out of the seat, pressing the bay door to open as a rumble reverberates through his chest. A simmering growl that reignites through his elemental ward – chilling the air around him further as he steps out into the snow-covered clearing. A corpus storage yard barren of crates of machinery, where gigantean carrier ospreys sit abandoned, sprayed with the stains of red of dead crewmen. Bodies lie frozen as he walks by, abandoning his karak for his claws as his breathing heaves.

“Sunshine… Xev?” he calls out, glancing around the remnants of their hours earlier assault on the base, the scars made in the metal carved by the prime’s elemental blade. “Xev!” he shouts, hoping for a response as fear grips inside his gut. He looks towards where the hanger bay door connects into the base of the mountain, where the doorway remains jammed by a corpus body. Beside it, Xev’s resource drone. Caved in and circuitry ripped free. “Shit,” he growls, stalking over towards the doorway, bypassing an intact fusion moa frozen in the snow. “Told him to stay in contact,” he mumbles, forcing himself through the doorway, stepping over the bisected corpse and the visceral sinew.

It’s the garbling of speech that directs his attention, following the half-hushed chuckles intermittent with the echoing of void energy. A radial hum that crackles through the air as he begins to move closer to the uncoordinated steps, the commotion brought on by regenerating bodies – they’ve cleaned the place out long ago, the blood still cast on the walls and the speckles dotting the ground. Ichor black.

Lucifer hopes he isn’t too late, sneaking up behind the shambles of a crewman taken by the void’s regenerative properties, standing despite the blood staining down the front of a completely torn environmental suit and the organs long seared by an elemental blade. Turquoise claws grip around the wandering abomination’s air supply, yanking it back down the steps as his chill mutes the startled cry, muffling it as he finishes them off for good.

Void corruption.

His teeth grit, making his way through the restocked halls of void-taken proxies and corpses, defended by merely his elemental ward and claws. Hoping that Xev was able to hold on to his senses, stave off the bustle of void energy that sings through the air around them as he moves deeper into the facility as he follows the droplets of inky black blood, Xev’s blood, Lucifer’s throat chokes as he eviscerates another stumbling corpse, throwing it over the edge of the walkway as it tries to callously smack him with a dead prod. The scream is deafened to his thoughts, storming his way through the barrage of reformed lasers as his vex armor surges, taking the brunt as his muscles flex with energy, tearing through them. Tearing components from components. Fully bisecting legs from moa torsos as the machinery screams in circuitry commotion. The same old motions, the same old song and dance of taking the brunt of the damage as he follows what where once speckles into full lashes of black – dripping down the wall.

Not far.

He’s close. The chroma’s concern surges within his throat; he hopes he isn’t too late.

Where the corpses of corrupted are laid out without his ‘assistance’, he finds a palm splattered with ichor dragged along the wall. It leads him to where the lighting sits dim, into a back-area where the aura of the void muddies the air. “Sunshine,” he whispers, his voice laced in hesitation, the innate rumble that crawls through his throat diminished as he boosts his vex armor and elemental ward. “Xev,” he calls out as he steps into a side laboratory where the void drenches the air.

Across the way, past the mess of corpus machinery, he can see the arching spine lined with golden plates. Leaning over, hunched against a desk surface and illuminated by the glow of the feedback, Xev’s winglets flicker in response to a secondary call out. And Lucifer keeps his place at the doorway as the excalibur’s breathing heaves heat, expelling fumes through chest and maw as his shoulders arch, claws digging into the corpus metal. His arms are quaking, traced with the drips of ichor black from scars refusing to properly seal along his shoulders. Upon the surface, just out of Lucifer’s sight, the prime’s exalted blade is drawn, held against the surface by the grit of blood-soaked palms.

A golden sheen echoes over Xev’s skin as he trembles.

Lucifer snarls; he’s too late.

“Xev,” he halves his words, watching the prime’s micromovements. A stalemate as they stand a distance apart. His elemental ward already up… Lucifer doesn’t have a choice. And he takes a step.

The whirl of an exalted blade sweeps against his coat as he takes the brunt of the damage into his shielding, a burst of Xev’s cyan reflecting back and cutting into the stations that separate them. Claws digging against the doorway the chroma avoids another rebounding slice, rolling his shoulders as he watches the excalibur lunge up onto the corpus work stations, cutting the distance between them as Lucifer backs out into the hallway. Feathers held tense, the chroma bares the brunt of the exalted slashes into his shielding, firming his feathers with every redirected slash that casts back towards their origins – cutting against the prime’s weakened shields.

Strength in silence, Lucifer carefully begins to backtrack through the facility, careful to not misstep on the corpses, careful to try and avoid the aggressive slashes as the prime hisses and growls. Words garbled in a midst of slurring orokin that nearly brings the chroma to stop in his tracks. And each time, as he brushes off the sight of another reflected slash cutting into the prime’s skin; this isn’t Xev, this is the void possession. Even as the spray of ichor blood splatters against the walls with every sail of another exalted strike – Lucifer must hold back, keep the distance between them, guide Xev away from the drenching of void energy.

With ease he dodges another sailing strike, tail pressed up against the walkway railing as they keep moving, hocks and heels stepping around the languishing corpses they’ve both left behind, moving back towards where the facility connects to the storage yard. Back to where they were both suppose to be minutes earlier, gathering a fusion moa and loading it up into a ship – the ship.

Hesitation draws Lucifer to pause in the realization as another lashing of the excalibur’s exalted blade cuts around his shielding and strikes hard into the ward emitting from his feathers. It reflects sharply back towards Xev, cutting him pec to thigh, staggering the corrupted prime until a foot stabilizes him, screaming a garble in Orokin tongue before another strike is sent out, and another that Lucifer is too cramped up to avoid – and they strike him square in the stomach, spraying inky black onto the floor as he doubles over, cradling his gut.

“Xev,” crawls through Lucifer’s restraint as he moves back up the steps, kicking a decoupled moa down the flight to where the prime is fighting to continue the case.

Cyan cuts through the moa’s chassis, another sailing past the chroma’s head as the excalibur growls.

His ichor black bleeds over his shoulders and his front, hands clung with the inky stick as he continues to chase the chroma out into the environmental access chamber – where the Venusian chill breathes against Lucifer’s back. ‘Almost,’ crosses his mind, his teeth held in a grit as he watches the prime shamble up the steps, as the gilded sheen coaxes over his skin as the void energy resurges – the last remaining repossession as the tethers of the void trails from Xev’s shoulders. Just the same motions made as steam wisps between the excalibur’s bared teeth, as heat exhausts from the exposed ventilation in his chest as he tries to stand upright. ‘Please,’ grips in the chroma’s chest, turning his sight away as the prime stumbles over the spilling of his own blood, his own claws shuttering against his side as his feathers echo to resurge – ward almost out.

He stands before the doorway leading out, where beyond it lies their shared ship, the moa Xev wanted so hard to salvage despite the threat of repossession by the void…

And here they are, Xev taken by what he’s always dreaded the most.

Lucifer swallows, reigniting his elemental ward as Xev’s body lurches forth, arms saturated in his own blood as the wounds on his stomach don’t subside.

The corruption screams through, and the prime throws out another slice of cyan. Reinvigorated, boosted by the void energy corrupting his nervous systems, he surges forth on wobbling legs, as visceral black paints the floor and the snow as he chases Lucifer down. Out into the snow where his blood stands stark in the glint of fresh still falling snow, a rebounded slash striking out around Xev as Lucifer smacks each attempt away, letting the prime close the distance between them until it’s a few meters, a few makes 5 and…

Lucifer casts out his spectral scream as he storms forth, optical receptors held shut as he closes in on the garbling of slurring orokin, ignoring the slashes and kicks that press into him as he pushes the prime to turn around – his movement slowed by the spectral scream. His large turquoise claws make short work of restraining the corrupted excalibur, pinning his arms against his sides as his grimace presses into the excalibur’s neck. Claws wreck against his thighs, against his arms as the golden-tipped fingers dig beneath his feathers, rending the skin beneath in a surging panic. Never once opening his sight, Lucifer stands in place as the snow whips around them, his legs locking in place in the snow – if he was to sit, what would happen…?

Would Xev break free and go for his throat?

“Please,” bubbles up the chroma’s throat, “please break out of this, sunshine.” He presses his words into the excalibur’s skin, trying not to imagine the sheer amount of blood that oozes into his feathers as claws tear at him, enduring the pain of kicking feet fighting back.

Eventually, slowly… Xev stops struggling, going completely limp as blood still drips down his hanging legs, down his hanging arms.

And Lucifer drops down into the snow, his innate chill buffering him from the snow as he releases his firm grip, internally begging for any sign of motion to respond as his maw still presses into the excalibur’s neck. Carefully, slowly, gently he lets the unconscious warframe rest against him as he adjusts his grip, pulling Xev’s legs up to the side as he cradles his partner against his chest. Still bleeding… his jaw clenches, he shuffles.

“Luci…” creaks from a hoarse throat, and the chroma freezes. “I’m so sorry,” his voice warbles, arms weak as he tries to hold onto the feathered chest. Just as weak fingers pull into Lucifer’s feathers, “I shouldn’t…” creaks, “everything hurts…”

“Hey, hey,” the chroma’s voice trembles, angrily quaking, agitation still spiking through the fallout adrenaline rush. “It’s not your fault, alright, sunshine…?” He should’ve kept a better look out on the void fissure locations. He hustles the excalibur against his chest, trying to find his footing as he pulls himself away to look to their shared ship. Not that far, just a short walk.

Xev shivers, burrowing himself into the chroma’s coat as steam billows from his mouth, overheat stress sweeting down his crested temples as he tries to Lucifer closer. “No, nononono,” the excalibur trembles, “we… should’ve just left… the moa…”

Lucifer cradles Xev against him, his large hands holding the excalibur in place as he moves to stand. “Forget it,” he growls, “just a little damage, I can still carry it to the ship.”

“But its…” Xev whispers into Lucifer’s coat

“Let me worry about it,” the chroma snarls, sitting back on the open ramp of their ship, cradling Xev once more against his chest. “Just rest, alright?”

“Your arm,” the prime snarls back, “let me see it, Lucifer.”

“Xev…” Lucifer bites back, feeling as weak fingers try to pull his arm free – moving it out from beneath Xev’s legs and letting the blood-soaked palms holding against his healing wounds. “They’re not deep… I’ll be fine,” he hushes, watching over as the excalibur’s legs tremble against the cold ramp, heat exhaustion wrecking the prime’s internals, making his legs uselessly numb as he looks back to the ginger hold of golden claws.

“I can’t forgive myself for doing this to you,” Xev trembles, pulling the chroma’s arm against him, burying himself again into the Lucifer’s chest.

Silent and still they remain on the ramp, Lucifer listening as the prime’s breath draws silent; labored breath drawn into an occasional painful chuff as the bloom of cyan energy finally begins to overtake the spilling of ichor black.

Xev, fast asleep.

Releasing a held breath, Lucifer pulls himself back to his feet with the prime still cradled against his chest. He shoulders the doorway into their shared cot with a huff, tail whacking painfully against the metal doorframe as it aggressively sways. Irritation placates through his nerves as he lies the prime out on the bed, pulling over a rag from Xev’s haphazard workstation to clean his blood from his person. To do so he has to sit beside him, pull him up against his turned side and letting the unconscious body rest against him – curling into him as he brushes the staining black from Xev’s healing stomach. It’s a moment stained in regret as he finally leaves Xev alone on the bed, curling up alone on the sheets beneath the bask of the low light… but he’ll be back, he settles with himself as he walks down the bay ramp.

Carefully he pulls the blade-slashed fusion moa from the snow, an entire section bisected by the void-imbued energy that the corrupted Xev had channeled. Nonetheless, he makes the trek to carry it up into the cramped storage of their ship, stowing it beside the side-exit. And there is a moment where he pauses, hand over the withdraw panel of the bay doors… and he walks back out into the snow, returning to the ship with the remains of their resource drone.

Slapping the bay door to shut, he drops the drone remains off beside the door to their shared cot, taking the short walk up to the cabin to relocate them somewhere safer.

To where he can feel comfortable setting them down beneath the makeshift void mask, returning to the shared cot by his wounded partner’s side. His large claws make quick work to pull Xev against his gut, careful to give the prime enough room as his tail curls down to the floor – flickering as he shuffles to separate the prime from the room, safely within his arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second 'chapter' is of Xev's perspective in the intermittent time - when the void corruption begun to take over. He watched it all.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where Xev struggles to keep the void corruption at bay.

“I’m a few rooms down from it,” Xev pants, his claws resounding on the metal floor of the corpus hallway as his resource drone follows after him, hovering back behind his shoulder as he steps around eviscerated corpses. “Where are you?” His steps are careful as he makes his way up the stairs, as heat continues to surge through his circuits and nerves.

“Damn thing took a moment,” he can hear Lucifer growl in his auditory circuits, holding a hand up to the gilded spike that juts from his jaw. “In the air, may take a minute or two to get to you.”

Leaning up against a wall at the top of the landing into the environmental access chamber Xev falls silent, forcing down a swallow until he can fully direct his legs forward without them quaking. Step by step he makes his way into the environmental access chamber, where blood drenches the windows beyond the lockers, where blood stains the suits still on their racks; he turns away from the remains sat cold in the suiting room as he forces on his steps – to keep moving, the snow will be enough to calm his nervous system and settle the heat. At least for now.

Taking a moment as he steps over the corps laid out in the doorway, he makes his way over to the form of a curled moa – knees dropping into the snow as heat continues to burn like a furnace, steam exhaling in his every breath. Claws curling into the snow for a moment, brushing aside the stacking snow from the deactivated proxy in the next; ‘could probably fetch a few hundred grands for one completely intact,’ he whispers to himself.

“Sunshine…?” whispers over the commlink, where the chroma’s voice rumbles in worry.

Leaning up against the moa, Xev returns the call. “Sorry,” he sighs, “heats getting to me, once we’re in orbit you’re more than welcome to bundle me up in your fluff,” he chides, a small pulled across his face.

And through his spine he feels the initial pressure, gripping around in his throat as muscles clench in the sudden overload of void energy that surges through his transference bolt. Xev, quick as he’s able, grips around his nape, spinning himself away from the crack of a void fissure that breaks a few short steps away. It surges through his skull, a hammering resounds through his auditory circuits, through his wires and nerves as his body crumples into the snow, scratching and grasping against the screaming in his head. Legs pushing against whatever he can manage to press against, Xev forces them beneath him, kicking back and away from the fusion moa – fear gripping his choked throat.

It doesn’t move, but beside him the resource drone sheens – void possession.

KILL

The void enigma screams, scratching against his mental restraint as he kicks across the ground, hands pressed against the sides of his head – his left palm digging at his exposed jaw flesh. Xev shakes it as he staggers to his feet, wobbling and swaying through his stride towards the doorway – his drone follows. Can’t let it see him, can’t let it ‘watch him’ his mind chokes, golden claws digging into the metal carapace. Beneath his claws the shell easily splits, pulling and yanking at whatever circuitry he’s able to find hold of, whatever he can do to make the damn thing fall into the snow at his feet as the void energy continues to sing in his head.

“Xev, you see me?” crackles in his malformed commlink.

Shit.

Scrambling his way behind the nearby resting shipping container, Xev crumbles against it as the void energy infiltrates his sensors, crawling through his neurological systems as he struggles to focus, as he staggers over the crumpled corpse in the doorway – shoulders scrapping against the wall as he strikes his head. “Get out of there,” he snarls, hands grasping his shoulders as they hunch forth – he needs put space between him and Lucifer. His teeth grit – Lucifer shouldn’t see him like this.

Pushing up from the wall, claws digging into his soft hide, he stumbles towards the stairs leading down. His legs, though barely coordinated by his void ailed thoughts, keep moving him forward with each stride as the void continues to scratch against his damaged transference bolt. The heat, his claws dig into his skin, is excruciating as he draws blood to welt across his shoulders. Clawing, scratching, Xev ignores the warbles of corrupted speech that fall at his feet. His mind surging, aching, screwed by the twisting void energy that bolsters his energy yet never dispenses it to the wounds carved over his shoulders, not to the middling scrapes and scratches that line his body as his exalted blade bisects another with a twisting grin cut by anxious thoughts. Blood soaks his palms as he crumples against the wall, holding a blood-soaked hand to his broken crescent as the void energy continues to scream in his thoughts, choking, snarling – it’s broken through.

His body is not his own – he snarls.

Pushing himself away from the wall his hand contorts against the wall, claws pressing against the bulk of metal as he chases himself into the silence – he needs silence, he needs to rid the void from his circuitry. His body gasps, falling against the laboratory surface as his thoughts choke, erode; where his optical sensors resound with errors and faulty visions as he stares down at the corpus metal, trying to restructure himself, failing to stabilize his mental processes as his body quivers and quakes. Corruption aches through his veins, his concentration breaking through to the weakness in his knees, the exhaustion brought on by overheat stress that make his jaw grit.

His vision swirls; only stabilized by the static metal as he tries to focus on a minor scratch on the surface. Something to ground himself. Something to force the void from his thoughts. SOMETHING.

“Sunshine…”

Fuck. His body snarls – held only in place by his concentration on the metal.

Xev can hear Lucifer boost his elemental ward and vex armor; ready for a fight. “Xev,” the chroma calls out louder, his gentle steps HAMMERING against the void enigmatic response. It wants to fight back, destroy the intruders just as he eviscerated the bodies on his way here.

But, as much as he’s able, Xev keeps it in check.

He’s not sure how much longer he can.

Another call, his winglets flicker, churning his head between his shoulders as his gore slicken claws grip against the metal. Breathing labored, body quaking through every tempered exhale as he stares down at the metal.

‘Lucifer, please just go away,’ he bites – his vocal systems already gone to the corruption.

Forcing his body to keep still, to not lash back as he keeps the focus of optical surface towards the surface.

He’s not sure how much longer he can hold on.

“Xev…” Xev chokes in the suffocating air, losing grip as the void corruption urges to LASH. Movements begin to slip, the motions made to turn around, to brandish the exalted blade to sail towards the chroma’s skull.

And his concentration slips; his body isn’t his own anymore.


End file.
